What makes a competition surf sim?

With the first Second Life Surfing Association competition season behind us, the SLSA is busy planning the next season of surfing action and has invited sim owners to apply to become competition venues for Season Two. Majini Island, Surfline, Monkeh Barrel, El Corazon and Neart provided the venues for Season One. We already know that Monkey Barrel and Surfline will not be around for the second surfing season, which means that the SLSA must find at least two new venues by default just to hold the same number of competitions. Which begs the question, what makes a good surfing competition sim? And how will the SLSA choose?

“The basic criteria for an SLSA competition sim are all performance related,” Sally LaSalle, SLSA director told SurfWatch (see pic right). “We’re looking for class 5 sims, probably not class 4 and performance comes down to a few elements: prims, textures and physics. However, what makes a good surf sim is more subjective than that. The sim needs to have some atmosphere, a feeling if you like and, where SLSA competitions are concerned, it needs to provide a challenge.”

VW Sands, Bishara Resorts Estates Manager who runs Majini Island surf sim agrees. “A full spec sim with very little prim-traffic and nearly no scripts! And a full spec adjacent sim to swallow spectators. However, atmosphere is a whole new challenge. Either a place has it or it doesn't in my opinion.”

“Well perhaps the most important thing is that there is a joining sim to hold the spectators on, this helps spread out the strain that a contest puts on a sim,” comments former SLSA director Craig Stallion. ”The only exception to this would be perhaps venues that have access to their own server. Certainly full prim sims are better able to handle the strain all things being equal as they tend to have more access to server resources.”

“What makes a good surf sim? Well the closest you can get to a full sim with zero lag,” said Pova Rustamova, the SLSA 2008 Season One champion. “Surfline, may it rest in peace, was beautiful. El Corazon had so many scripts on the island that when competition started it was like surfing in molasses. And then Monkeh Barrel surfed great, but broke down on competition day. Although, I love surfing them all! Of course, we always forget that simply having people on a sim cause problems too.”

The SLSA has already received a dozen offers from surf sim owners to host SLSA competitions in Season Two. "We want to give sim owners the ability to register their interst and have a fully open process," explains Sally. "This first step really is just about gathering basic information. The decision making process on choosing the final competition sims will also be open."

Other than having a full spec surf sim, all that is required of the sim owners is for them to dedicate management resources to work with the SLSA organisers and to turn the sim over to the SLSA for a day. However, whilst there is no financial requirement made of sim owners by the SLSA, surf sims must also take the SLSA competition sponsorship package if they want their brand to be associated with the event.

Sim owners wishing to offer to host an SLSA competition in Season Two should complete the application form available via the SLSA Forum as soon as possible.

Useful links
URL: SLSA
URL: SLSA Competition Sim Application Form
URL: SLSA Season One Contest Calendar

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